Hasta La Creative!

W+K New York unveils the new high-tech SportsCenter set, complete with a few bugs, in the latest in their long-running “This Is SportsCenter” series.

SportsCenter is set to debut their new studio on June 22nd, and the new spot takes place on the set of the 194,000 square foot Digital Center 2. In the 30-second spot, entitled “Universal Remote,” anchor Kevin Negandhi shows off the studio’s capabilities to fellow host Hannah Storm using a universal remote. The button on the remote that’s supposed to control the desk appears to be faulty, however, with Washington Nationals’ mascot Theodore Roosevelt, along with anchors Jay Crawford and Jay Harris, taking full advantage of the unintended and comical consequences. It’s a fun introduction to the new studio that manages to show off some of its new capabilities without taking itself seriously. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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While Apple recently announced that it will be taking more of its ads in house, this latest iPhone spot comes from TBWA Media Arts Lab, and features a rather unusual song selection.

The 60-second spot, entitled “Strength,” is a relatively straightforward montage promoting the use of the iPhone 5S for physical fitness. Less straightforward, however, is the spot’s soundtrack. As Adweek reports, “Strength” is set to “The Youth Fitness Song” (also called “Chicken Fat”), which originally appeared as a song from President Kennedy’s national physical fitness program. The song, which was written by Meredith Wilson and performed by Robert Preston in 1961, was distributed to schools and played as an accompaniment to a morning calisthenics routine. Whether the song is meant to stoke Baby Boomer nostalgia or someone on board just thought it would be a fun bit of silliness, “Go, you chicken fat, go” is a pretty strange way to tell people to start exercising (while utilizing their iPhone 5S). Coming on the heels of the recent spot featuring “Gigantic,” it marks something of a trend in unorthodox song selections promoting the 5S.

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TBWAParis, Amnesty International France’s advertising agency for 10 years, has a new ad for the organization, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary.
The 1:55 film, entitled “Pens,” uses a clever visual device to tell the story of an unnamed protestor. The protestor is arrested, detained and abused, but released following thousands of petitions for his release. Set to a soundtrack performed by Paolo Nutini, with a short, stirring excerpt from Charlie Chaplin’s The Dictator, the spot champions Amnesty’s process of mobilization via the signatures of its supporters. “Pens” is a clear expression of Amnesty Frances’s ““your signature is more powerful than you think” slogan and a powerful encapsulation of what the organization stands for. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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New York-based full-service independent agency Barker has announced expansion their executive leadership team with the promotions of Ray Rainville, Sandi Harari and John Lu to senior vice president. The expansion is a reflection of “the company’s recent growth and expansion of its Client Services, Creative and Interactive departments.”

Rainville will lead the agency’s client relations team, business development, and oversee the execution of campaigns as senior vice president of client services. He joined Grey colleague and Barker president back in 2003 to help build the agency. His “business development and production experience has enabled the agency to work with leading companies in a broad range of industries to develop award-winning integrated campaigns.”

As senior vice president of creative, Harrari will oversee integrated concepts across all media platforms. A 21 year veteran of advertising and design, Harrari joined Barker in 2006 as a creative director and has worked on campaigns for clients such as Atkins Nutritionals, IDB Bank, Kiss Nails, Parx Casino and Estée Lauder.

Lu will “lead the agency’s digital team which specializes in user experience design, strategy and digital production” as senior vice president of interactive. He has been instrumental in building Barker’s digital practice and has helped launch award winning websites, applications, mobile apps, social media programs and digital media campaigns. Prior to Barker, Lu held senior UX positions at CP+B, Digitas and ESI Design. He has over fifteen years of digital experience. continued…

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It’s official: today Ashley Furniture HomeStore appointed McCann New York as its creative agency of record and Compass Point as its media planning agency.

The press release names Ashley as “the #1 furniture retailer in North America and one of the fastest growing furniture brands in the world”; the company’s SVP of global marketing/ads calls McCann “a strategic partner who understands the powerful connection our brand has with our customers.”

In other AOR news, New York’s SS+K won the Jackson Hewitt Tax Services account. The agency’s creative work will drive a rebranding effort designed to position the company “as the financial partner for hardworking Americans.”

Incoming CEO Dave Prokupek writes, “Our industry is undergoing rapid change and SS+K has the vision to help differentiate the Jackson Hewitt brand and to drive sales.”

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Story Uk Ltd teamed up with production company th1ng to create a unique World Cup spot for Ardbeg Distillery’s new Ardbeg Auriverdes whiskey.

Directed by David Boni, in collaboration with animation director Shay Hamias, the spot celebrates both Islay, Scotland’s distinctive brand of “peat football” and Ardberg Distllery. Shot in black and white, the 75-second spot opens on an old photo of an Islay football team. One of the players steps out of the photograph, punts an old leather ball out of the frame, and starts a chain reaction that runs through the remainder of the ad. There’s been a barrage of soccer related advertising leading up to the World Cup, but this one stands out with a unique setting and approach. Stick with us after the jump for limited credits. continued…

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With the World Cup kicking off today in Brazil, W+K Amsterdam has a new campaign for EA Sport’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (out now on PS3 and Xbox360), aimed to “appeal to every gamer, and to every American with a star-spangled heart.”

The campaign calls on viewers to be “The next American hero” in a 75-second online spot as Team U.S.A. faces the “Group of Death” in Brazil. “The Next American Hero,” which also appears in 15 and 30-second online advertisement iterations, features a “team of soccer heroes representing a cross-section of American society” — such as an  astronaut, cowboy, tech entrepreneur and cheerleader — take the field for the US. Set to the song “Real American,” the spot is built around the idea that with 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, the fate of the US soccer team is in your hands. And odds are they’ve got a better chance at advancing past group stage than the real team. We’ve got credits following the jump. continued…

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“Cramer-Krasselt did not fire us,” Panera Bread Chief Marketing Officer Michael Simon told AdAge yesterday, referring to the leaked internal memo stating the agency had resigned from Panera Bread. Instead, Simon claims, “We told them we were going to open it up for review, and they decided not to participate.”

According to Simon, Panera had been reevaluating its marketing strategy due to weakening sales. AdAge writes that the company “had been pushing the agency to bring the advertising to the next level over the last couple months” but that while Cramer-Krasselt had been producing new work, Simon said the ads “weren’t breakthrough enough.” When Panera Bread told Cramer-Krasselt they were opening things up for a review, the agency declined to participate.

“We had a good relationship with the team [at Cramer-Krasselt]. And the work was good, but we were aspiring for great,” said Simon. “We told them we wanted to get more folks in the room and solicit new ideas from them…but incumbent agencies get reticent about bringing in new agencies.”

The review is reportedly underway, with eight undisclosed agencies involved. No request for proposal has been issued yet, as AdAge reports “the next step is to hold chemistry meetings, followed by an assignment for some of the shops.” The review, which will be conducted internally, is expected to last six or seven weeks.

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JWT Chicago tapped “Original Anchorman” and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! host Bill Kurtis for a new, slightly misogynist campaign for the Illinois Office of Tourism.

The campaign features a series of seven digital videos “laced with explosions, trumpet playing bears and stock cars” in which Kurtis implores viewers to “vacation like a man” and visit the manly side of Illinois. In the spots, such “manly” activities as stock car racing, golf, horse racing, and casino gambling are highlighted. These spots will be featured on the Enjoy Illinois site, which helps visitors plan out their next trip to the state. It’s hard not to feel a little bit insulted watching the ads, which appeal to and reinforce outdated stereotypes while implying that a vacation can’t be gender-neutral. Credits and one more “Mancation” spot after the jump. continued…

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Night Agency has a new online video for Kiehl’s that aims to gain attention for the brand’s men’s personal care products.

For the video, Night Agency attached a tube of Kiehl’s Oil Eliminator moisturizer “to a weather balloon that rises 23 miles in the air…fitted with cameras that showed the facial lotion hovering in space with the curvature of the Earth behind it,” reports the New York Times. A parachute was then deployed for the craft’s descent back to Earth. The craft spent about three hours in the air, before being retrieved by a team, which tracked the vehicle with GPS, around 90 miles away in a Pennsylvania field. After retrieving the bottle of moisturizer the team proceeds to apply it, thus putting space on their face.

“There’s a really limited subset of guys that read grooming blogs, and we absolutely want to be in those,” said Night Agency Executive Creative Director Evan Slater. “But we wanted to make sure that we were getting coverage from things like Popular Science and getting into the popular male conversation outside of the grooming world.”

The video itself ups the cheese factor on the stunt, with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor exemplified by the “Face: The final frontier” text which opens the video. Cheesiness aside, “How To: Put Space on Your Face” is worth the 2:30 view time if you’re curious as to how exactly the Night Agency team pulled off the stunt. You can check it out above, and we’ve got credits after the jump. continued…

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